22ND SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME (YEAR A) – AUGUST 31, 2014

Saturday, August 30, 2014

22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time  – Year A

5:00 pm  Novena to Our Lady

5:30 pm  Sunset Mass in English

First Reading

JEREMIAH 20:7-9

7 You have seduced me, Yahweh, and I have let myself be seduced; you have overpowered me: you were the stronger. I am a laughing-stock all day long, they all make fun of me.

8 For whenever I speak, I have to howl and proclaim, 'Violence and ruin!' For me, Yahweh's word has been the cause of insult and derision all day long.

9 I would say to myself, 'I will not think about him, I will not speak in his name any more,' but then there seemed to be a fire burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones. The effort to restrain it wearied me, I could not do it.

“The Word of the Lord”

PSALMS 63:2-6, 8-9

2 Thus I have gazed on you in the sanctuary, seeing your power and your glory.

3 Better your faithful love than life itself; my lips will praise you.

4 Thus I will bless you all my life, in your name lift up my hands.

5 All my longings fulfilled as with fat and rich foods, a song of joy on my lips and praise in my mouth.

6 On my bed when I think of you, I muse on you in the watches of the night,

8 my heart clings to you, your right hand supports me.

9 May those who are hounding me to death go down to the depths of the earth,

Second Reading

Romans 12:1-2

1 I urge you, then, brothers, remembering the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, dedicated and acceptable to God; that is the kind of worship for you, as sensible people.

2 Do not model your behaviour on the contemporary world, but let the renewing of your minds transform you, so that you may discern for yourselves what is the will of God -- what is good and acceptable and mature.

“The Word of the Lord”

Gospel Reading

Matthew 16:21-27

21 From then onwards Jesus began to make it clear to his disciples that he was destined to go to Jerusalem and suffer grievously at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes and to be put to death and to be raised up on the third day.

22 Then, taking him aside, Peter started to rebuke him. 'Heaven preserve you, Lord,' he said, 'this must not happen to you.'

23 But he turned and said to Peter, 'Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle in my path, because you are thinking not as God thinks but as human beings do.'

24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, 'If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me.

25 Anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it.

26 What, then, will anyone gain by winning the whole world and forfeiting his life? Or what can anyone offer in exchange for his life?

27 'For the Son of man is going to come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he will reward each one according to his behaviour.

“The Gospel of the Lord”

21ST SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME (YEAR A) – AUGUST 24, 2014

Saturday, August 23, 2014 

21st Sunday of Ordinary Time  – Year A

5:00 pm  Novena to Our Lady 

5:30 pm  Sunset Mass in English

First Reading 

ISAIAH 22:15, 19-23

15 The Lord Yahweh Sabaoth says this: Go and find that steward, Shebna, the master of the palace:

19 I shall hound you from your office, I shall snatch you from your post

20 and, when that day comes, I shall summon my servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah.

21 I shall dress him in your tunic, I shall put your sash round his waist, I shall invest him with your authority; and he will be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the House of Judah.

22 I shall place the key of David's palace on his shoulder; when he opens, no one will close, when he closes, no one will open.

23 I shall drive him like a nail into a firm place; and he will become a throne of glory for his family.

“The Word of the Lord”

MAZMUR 138:1-3, 6, 8

1 [Of David] I thank you, Yahweh, with all my heart, for you have listened to the cry I uttered. In the presence of angels I sing to you,

2 I bow down before your holy Temple. I praise your name for your faithful love and your constancy; your promises surpass even your fame.

3 You heard me on the day when I called, and you gave new strength to my heart.

6 Sublime as he is, Yahweh looks on the humble, the proud he picks out from afar.

8 Yahweh will do all things for me. Yahweh, your faithful love endures for ever, do not abandon what you have made.

Second Reading 

ROMANS 11:33-36

33 How rich and deep are the wisdom and the knowledge of God! We cannot reach to the root of his decisions or his ways.

34 Who has ever known the mind of the Lord? Who has ever been his adviser?

35 Who has given anything to him, so that his presents come only as a debt returned?

36 Everything there is comes from him and is caused by him and exists for him. To him be glory for ever! Amen.

“The Word of the Lord”

Gospel Reading 

MATTHEW 16:13-20

13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi he put this question to his disciples, 'Who do people say the Son of man is?'

14 And they said, 'Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.'

15 'But you,' he said, 'who do you say I am?'

16 Then Simon Peter spoke up and said, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.'

17 Jesus replied, 'Simon son of Jonah, you are a blessed man! Because it was no human agency that revealed this to you but my Father in heaven.

18 So I now say to you: You are Peter and on this rock I will build my community. And the gates of the underworld can never overpower it.

19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of Heaven: whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.'

20 Then he gave the disciples strict orders not to say to anyone that he was the Christ.

“The Gospel of the Lord”

20TH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME (YEAR A) – AUGUST 17, 2014

Saturday, August 16, 2014 

20th Sunday of Ordinary Time  – Year A

5:00 pm  Novena to Our Lady 

5:30 pm  Sunset Mass in English

First Reading 

ISAIAH 56:1, 6-7

1 Thus says Yahweh: Make fair judgement your concern, act with justice, for soon my salvation will come and my saving justice be manifest.

6 As for foreigners who adhere to Yahweh to serve him, to love Yahweh's name and become his servants, all who observe the Sabbath, not profaning it, and cling to my covenant:

7 these I shall lead to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar, for my house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples.

“The Word of the Lord”

PSALMS 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8

2 Then the earth will acknowledge your ways, and all nations your power to save.

3 Let the nations praise you, God, let all the nations praise you.

4 Let the nations rejoice and sing for joy, for you judge the world with justice, you judge the peoples with fairness, you guide the nations on earth.Pause

5 Let the nations praise you, God, let all the nations praise you.

6 The earth has yielded its produce; God, our God has blessed us.

7 May God continue to bless us, and be revered by the whole wide world.

5 Let the nations praise you, God, let all the nations praise you.

6 The earth has yielded its produce; God, our God has blessed us.

Second Reading 

ROMANS 11:13-15, 29-32

13 Let me say then to you gentiles that, as far as I am an apostle to the gentiles, I take pride in this work of service;

14 and I want it to be the means of rousing to envy the people who are my own blood-relations and so of saving some of them.

15 Since their rejection meant the reconciliation of the world, do you know what their re-acceptance will mean? Nothing less than life from the dead!

29 There is no change of mind on God's part about the gifts he has made or of his choice.

30 Just as you were in the past disobedient to God but now you have been shown mercy, through their disobedience;

31 so in the same way they are disobedient now, so that through the mercy shown to you they too will receive mercy.

32 God has imprisoned all human beings in their own disobedience only to show mercy to them all.

“The Word of the Lord”

Gospel Reading
MATTHEW 15:21-28

21 Jesus left that place and withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.

22 And suddenly out came a Canaanite woman from that district and started shouting, 'Lord, Son of David, take pity on me. My daughter is tormented by a devil.'

23 But he said not a word in answer to her. And his disciples went and pleaded with him, saying, 'Give her what she wants, because she keeps shouting after us.'

24 He said in reply, 'I was sent only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.'

25 But the woman had come up and was bowing low before him. 'Lord,' she said, 'help me.'

26 He replied, 'It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to little dogs.'

27 She retorted, 'Ah yes, Lord; but even little dogs eat the scraps that fall from their masters' table.'

28 Then Jesus answered her, 'Woman, you have great faith. Let your desire be granted.' And from that moment her daughter was well again.

“The Gospel of the Lord”

THE ASSUMPTION OF BLESSED VIRGIN MARY (YEAR A) – AUGUST 15, 2014

Friday, August 15, 2014 

Feast of the Assumption of 

Blessed Virgin Mary – Year A

08:00 pm   Multilingual Mass

First Reading 

REVELATION 11:19, 12:1-6, 10

19 Then the sanctuary of God in heaven opened, and the ark of the covenant could be seen inside it. Then came flashes of lightning, peals of thunder and an earthquake and violent hail.

1 Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman, robed with the sun, standing on the moon, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.

2 She was pregnant, and in labour, crying aloud in the pangs of childbirth.

3 Then a second sign appeared in the sky: there was a huge red dragon with seven heads and ten horns, and each of the seven heads crowned with a coronet.

4 Its tail swept a third of the stars from the sky and hurled them to the ground, and the dragon stopped in front of the woman as she was at the point of giving birth, so that it could eat the child as soon as it was born.

5 The woman was delivered of a boy, the son who was to rule all the nations with an iron sceptre, and the child was taken straight up to God and to his throne,

6 while the woman escaped into the desert, where God had prepared a place for her to be looked after for twelve hundred and sixty days.

10 Then I heard a voice shout from heaven, 'Salvation and power and empire for ever have been won by our God, and all authority for his Christ, now that the accuser, who accused our brothers day and night before our God, has been brought down.

“The Word of the Lord”

PSALMS 45:10, 11, 12, 16

10 Listen, my daughter, attend to my words and hear; forget your own nation and your ancestral home,

11 then the king will fall in love with your beauty; he is your lord, bow down before him.

12 The daughter of Tyre will court your favour with gifts, and the richest of peoples

16 Instead of your ancestors you will have sons; you will make them rulers over the whole world.

Second Reading 

1 CORINTHIANS 15:20-26

20 In fact, however, Christ has been raised from the dead, as the first-fruits of all who have fallen asleep.

21 As it was by one man that death came, so through one man has come the resurrection of the dead.

22 Just as all die in Adam, so in Christ all will be brought to life;

23 but all of them in their proper order: Christ the first-fruits, and next, at his coming, those who belong to him.

24 After that will come the end, when he will hand over the kingdom to God the Father, having abolished every principality, every ruling force and power.

25 For he is to be king until he has made his enemies his footstool,

26 and the last of the enemies to be done away with is death, for he has put all things under his feet.

“The Word of the Lord”

Gospel Reading 

LUKE 1:39-56

39 Mary set out at that time and went as quickly as she could into the hill country to a town in Judah.

40 She went into Zechariah's house and greeted Elizabeth.

41 Now it happened that as soon as Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the child leapt in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

42 She gave a loud cry and said, 'Of all women you are the most blessed, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.

43 Why should I be honoured with a visit from the mother of my Lord?

44 Look, the moment your greeting reached my ears, the child in my womb leapt for joy.

45 Yes, blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled.'

46 And Mary said: My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord

47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour;

48 because he has looked upon the humiliation of his servant. Yes, from now onwards all generations will call me blessed,

49 for the Almighty has done great things for me. Holy is his name,

50 and his faithful love extends age after age to those who fear him.

51 He has used the power of his arm, he has routed the arrogant of heart.

52 He has pulled down princes from their thrones and raised high the lowly.

53 He has filled the starving with good things, sent the rich away empty.

54 He has come to the help of Israel his servant, mindful of his faithful love

55 -according to the promise he made to our ancestors -- of his mercy to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.

56 Mary stayed with her some three months and then went home.

“The Gospel of the Lord”